Board Games, Card Games, Dice Games and Video Games

Game Review–Dungeon Roll

In Dungeon Rollby Tasty Minstrel Games, $19.95 – The players are adventurers, entering the dungeon with goal is to collect the most experience points by defeating monsters, battling the dragon, and amassing treasure. Each player selects a Hero avatar, such as a Mercenary, Half-Goblin, or Enchantress, which provides them with unique powers. Then players take turns being the Adventurer, who boldly enters the dungeon seeking glory.

Each Adventurer assembles their party by rolling seven Party Dice, while another player serves as the Dungeon Lord and rolls a number of Dungeon Dice based on how far the Adventurer has progressed through the dungeon. The Adventurer uses Champion, Fighter, Cleric, Mage, Thief, and Scroll faces on the Party Dice to defeat monsters such as goblins and skeletons, claim treasure chests, and revive downed companions with potions.

The game components are excellent, and I love the custom dice and that they matched the colors on each die to coordinate with what character is most effective against what monster (Clerics are the same color as skeletons, for example). The cards have nice artwork, the counters are thick and double-sided, and the box looks like a little (3”W x 3”L x 3”T) treasure chest and is used to store and draw from for treasure tokens during the game.

Spencer and I have played this a dozen or so times now, and it’s a simple and fun game. Playing time for two players is about 15 minutes, and only slightly more for 3 or 4 players, so it’s definitely a quick-play game, suitable as a warm-up game for something longer, or to play while waiting for other players to arrive. It also has a solo mode which plays exactly like the multiplayer, and that strength is the biggest failing of Dungeon Roll.

Playing the game is really just the player doing hand-control with his party dice vs. the monster dice he is facing, pressing their luck as far as they can without being defeated and having to flee the dungeon. There is no interaction between the players. Yes, another player rolls the monster dice each round and keeps up with what dungeon level you are on, but there is no point where a player can take an action in their turn that affects another player. You are multiple players taking turns playing a solo game, and it feels that way. The only competition at all is when you add up Experience Points at the end of the game to see who had the most and therefore won.

Still, Dungeon Roll is fast, well-themed, well made and despite the lack of interaction, it is still fun. For the price, it’s worth picking up if you play games like Zombie Dice or Cthulhu Dice, or just want a simple filler game with nice components.

We will continue to play this one, but the lack of player interaction kneecaps it severely.